138 



THE ALBION MILLS. 



PART VII. 



terms of the ability with which he had designed and 

 executed the mill work and set the whole in operation. 



* 



THE ALBION MILLS. 



Amongst those who visited- the new mills and carefully 

 inspected them was Mr. Smeaton, the engineer, who pro- 

 nounced them to be the most complete, in their arrange- 

 ment and execution, which had yet been erected in 

 any country ; and though naturally an undemonstrative 

 person, he cordially congratulated Mr. Eennie on his 

 success. The completion of the Albion Mills, indeed, 

 marked an important stage in the history of mechanical 

 improvements ; and they may be said to have effected 

 an entire revolution in millwork generally. Until then, 

 machinery had been constructed almost entirely of 

 wood, and it was consequently exceedingly clumsy, in- 

 volving great friction and much waste of power. Mr. 

 Smeaton had introduced an iron wheel at Carron in 

 1754, and afterwards in a mill at Belper, in Derbyshire 

 mere rough castings, imperfectly executed, and neither 

 chipped nor filed to any particular form ; and Mr. Mur- 

 dock (James Watt's ingenious assistant) had also em- 

 ployed cast iron work to a limited extent in a mill erected 

 by him in Ayrshire ; but these were very inferior speci- 



